Borderlands isn’t well suited to short demos held in noisy convention halls, which is why I never wrote about my time with Borderlands 3 at E3 2019. Frankly, the game didn’t blow me away then, but I wasn’t testing it under optimal conditions -- namely, a lazy Sunday play session with a good friend or spouse on the other side of the couch. I haven’t had an opportunity to do that just yet, but I did recently get a chance to play around five hours of Borderlands 3 at Take-Two Interactive’s calm, immaculate Manhattan headquarters and now feel like I can fairly share my thoughts.
The Borderlands 3 demo was divided into two sessions – a full playthrough of the game’s introductory missions on Pandora and a mission set on the new steamy jungle planet of Eden-6. In both cases, I played as FL4K, Borderlands 3’s carnage-hungry robot Beastmaster, although for the Eden-6 mission I was given the keys to a much better-equipped high-level version of the character. For both sessions, I initially played solo (the intro section could only be played solo), although I did replay a portion of the Eden-6 mission with a co-op partner, which worked just as well always.

FL4K can choose between three different alien buddies who will scamper ahead and help you take care of enemies. Your pets don’t do a huge amount of damage, but they will draw enemy aggro, allowing you to flank unsuspecting baddies. I opted for the Spiderant, which confers some health-regeneration bonuses, but you can also go for a fuzzy Jabber or scaly Skag. I’ll admit, I got kinda attached to my charmingly-creepy Spiderant buddy and FL4K’s bone-dry robot humor grew on me after a while. FL4K’s a nice reminder not all robots are Claptrap-like nuisances. It feels like the character has been designed for loners who still want a little backup when playing solo, which is smart. During my second Eden-6 run, I also briefly tried out Moze, who can jump into a powerful mech for a limited amount of time. Moze feels a touch gimmicky compared to FL4K, but maybe I just didn’t get enough time with her.
Borderland 3’s character building options are definitely more complex than in the past – in addition to the pets, FL4K has a three different Action Skills to choose from, which can be augmented with different effects, and over 35 different Passive Abilities to be unlocked and upgraded. Borderlands 3’s Vault Hunters are clearly the most varied lineup Gearbox has dreamed up to date, allowing for all manner of play styles. By the way, you can check out interactive skill trees for all the new characters, right here.